ATLANTA --- This was the time, if ever it would happen, for
Maryland to begin salvaging its season and its postseason prospects with some
measure of steadiness.

But no. These are the Yo-Yo Terps, perpetually up and down
and predictably inconsistent, just as they have been since conference play
began.

Wednesday was no exception. Fresh off a ho-hum rout of
Clemson, the Terrapins turned in a 78-68 clunker at Georgia Tech to deal a
serious blow to any NCAA tournament at-large hopes they still possessed.

"I just think we played a little soft tonight,” freshman
center Shaquille Cleare said. “That can't happen. You have to have a lion
mentality. You have to have a heart of a champion. We come all the way to
Georgia to lose, we might as well stay in College Park and shoot free throws.”

The monotony of foul shots easily trumps the latest stumble
for Maryland (19-9, 7-8 ACC), which saw one of its long-standing problems
resurface in its first double-digit loss to the Yellow Jckets (15-12, 5-10)
since 2004.2

Nick Faust, owner of two turnover-free games last week, tied
a career-high with six giveaways. Pe’Shon Howard wasn’t any better, limited to
eight minutes thanks to his shot-chucking ways.

Even for this bunch, the point guards were adrift from the
start.

"Our point guard play the first half was about as bad
as it's been,” coach Mark Turgeon said.
“Nick was bad. Pe'Shon's decision-making both times he was in was terrible. Seth
[Allen] forced some things. I was just begging them in timeouts, the point
guard play has to be better. It just wasn't very good.”

But it wasn’t the worst part.

That honor was saved for defense, where Maryland couldn’t
contain Robert Carter Jr. (19 points and 10 rebounds) or much of anyone else
for that matter.

Turgeon was disappointed as the Yellow Jackets busted open a
double-digit lead early in the second half and were never seriously threatened
in the final 15 minutes. His counterpart was utterly elated.

Well, maybe not against Maryland on one of its bad days, and
this surely was one of those.

The Terps already saw their wiggle room eroded last week
with a befuddling loss at Boston College, and might have turned it all in with
their latest effort. There is only so much to gain from sweeping through Wake
Forest, North Carolina and Virginia to close out the regular season, and no
recent track record to suggest Maryland would win three in a row anyway.

The Terps cannot fix their pitiful nonconference schedule
strength. They can only modestly improve a 3-7 record away from Comcast Center.

In the macro, things are unpleasant. The micro wasn’t any
better Wednesday.

“We didn't play smart today,” center Alex Len said. “We were
intense and we were trying to execute and go faster and it hurt us. We didn't
make smart decisions.”

So Maryland finds itself questioning its on-court smarts,
examining its point guard situation yet again, trying to determine what ails
its defense and asking itself just how to thrive away from the comforts of
home.

All this as the calendar is about to turn to March --- just
one more bad sign on a night full of them.

02/26/2013

Saturday provides all sorts of significant games for Baltimore-D.C. area teams.

Maryland visits Wake Forest for a noon tip as it tries to nudge its way deeper into the at-large discussion. On the flip side, it would cost a bit more money (rental car, airport parking) to do this game than the others and will require a quick trip back to Raleigh/Durham for a late afternoon flight.

George Mason travels to Delaware for a game that could still determine the No. 2 seed in the CAA tournament. It could also have no bearing on seeding at all.

Atlantic 10 leader Saint Louis visits George Washington at 4 p.m., and a win would solidify the Colonials' place in the conference tournament.

Meanwhile, Towson plays its final game at the Towson Center and last game of the season when it welcomes struggling Hofstra to the Baltimore 'burbs.

Regardless of which of those games gets visited, Rutgers-Georgetown at Verizon Center will be the second game of the day at 9 p.m.

So, what game should D1scourse cover on Saturday? Votes will be taken through Thursday Wednesday (a day earlier for planning purposes).

02/25/2013

Maryland's final trip through the ACC in football will end at a place of some of the Terrapins' best recent memories over the last dozen years.

The Terps will close out the 2013 season Nov. 30 at N.C. State, where they clinched an outright ACC title in 2001, completed a riveting comeback in 2003 and secured bowl eligibility in 2007.

Of course, Maryland also fell to 5-6 on the final day of the 2005 season at N.C. State and blew a 41-14 lead at Carter-Finley Stadium in 2011. The Terps don't have all good memories from their recent trips to Raleigh.

Nonetheless, the series is traditionally one of close games, and is a fitting finale against a traditional rival before Maryland bolts for the Big Ten.

A full rundown of the Terps' 2013 schedule:

Aug. 31: Florida International

Sept. 7: Old DominionSept. 14: at ConnecticutSept. 21: vs. West Virginia in Baltimore

02/23/2013

Copes drained a 13-footer with 0.5 seconds left to lift George Mason to a 60-58 defeat of William & Mary on Saturday at the Patriot Center. But he'd hit a game-winner before, presumably.

"Never in my life," Copes confessed.

"Glad you told me that before," coach Paul Hewitt said.

Hewitt had only one piece of information that mattered, and it was that he and the Patriots collected another victory. They're 17-11 overall and 10-6 in a sputtering CAA, and things haven't come easy or consistent all season.

Even this winner wasn't entirely smooth. Never mind that Mason was down 50-37 with 11 minutes to go. The final play didn't entirely unfold in a predictable way.

The plan was to get the ball into guard Bryon Allen's hands and have both Copes and Jonathan Arledge set fake ball screens. That much worked. But out of a scrum came a pass to Copes, who was standing near the foul line when he got the ball with about two seconds to go.

"Obviously, he was a little bit too much open right there, but if we
wanted anyone to take it, we'd love to see Copes take a jump shot as
opposed to a lot of other weapons they had out there," Tribe coach Tony Shaver said. "I'm not sure it
was all bad defense, really."

It's tough to argue. But Allen, who was hoping to get to the rim, knew he'd made a winning play when he passed to the sophomore.

"He was very wide open," Allen said. "He practices that shot every day in practice. I knew he was going to make that shot."

And so an every-day occurrence led to a once-in-a-lifetime (to date) moment for Copes --- a game-winning shot in the final second.

"We call it zone shooting, making a shot around the CAA [logo] area," Copes said. "We always try to knock down a CAA jump shot."

He did just that Saturday, making a CAA jump shot to help Mason's lot in life in the CAA standings.

Five other observations from Mason's victory:

1. Anali Okoloji resurfaced at the perfect time for Mason.

It was exactly a month ago when Okoloji, a starter over the season's first 18 games, went to the bench.

He hadn't played more than 13 minutes since then. He's managed only 12 combined minutes over the last three games, including a DNP.

So, naturally, he played seven critical minutes in the second half, particularly at the defensive end.

"He had a great practice yesterday, so it was just a hunch
play," Hewitt said. "I said 'Let's give him a shot.' He had a great practice and was
sharp and looked quick again. We went with it and it paid off."

Okoloji provided a bigger body to harass the Tribe on the perimeter, particularly (at times) Marcus Thornton. The sophomore star had only five points in the final 13:59 --- which almost perfectly coincided with Okoloji's insertion into the lineup.

"His rebounding and his physical presence changed the game when it looked like we were pretty much dead in the water," Hewitt said.

2. Patrick Holloway was a bit of a savior as well.

The freshman scored 15 points, tied for his second best day of the season.

In truth, he was the only guy who could improve Mason's spacing issues all day.

"He kept us in the game when we were struggling," Hewitt said. "Anali's defense gave us a spark, but [other than] Patrick, we weren't scoring. Sherrod had a tough shooting day. there was a stretch in the second half where we had some shots around the rim we didn't finish. He stepped up big there."

What was particularly interesting was how much time Holloway and Okoloji spent on the floor together. Holloway is a superb outside shooter but not a well-developed defensive player. Okoloji might be Mason's best perimeter defender but is rarely a threat on offense.

It seemed Hewitt was willing to gamble that one player's strength would outweigh the other's weakness --- and in the second half it worked.

3. Mason finally snapped a three-game home skid.

The Patriots haven't seemed particularly great, and that's because they aren't. But despite some awful games (here's looking at you, 18-point loss to Georgia State), Mason hasn't found itself in a freefall this year.

The Patriots' longest skid of the year is two games. But it did have a puzzling three-game losing streak at home entering Saturday.

"As coaches, you learn how to deal with the losses," Hewitt said. "But what's been particularly disappointing for me is the type of support we get, and for us not to reward it --- especially our students. But they're hanging with us. We still have a chance to get one more at home."

That'll be an opportunity to complete a sweep of Towson on Tuesday and also provide Mason a chance to win three straight for the first time since Jan. 15-23.

And in case anyone forgot, the Patriots will need to win three in a row next month to claim the CAA tournament.

"We know we're a team that's capable of making it back to the NCAA tournament," Allen said.

4. William & Mary had a chance to win despite its offense checking out for 10 minutes.

When a team gives up a 19-1 run over a stretch of nearly nine minutes, it seems safe to assume the offense was malfunctioning.

It was in some ways for William & Mary, which missed five of six free throws in that period and a bunch of open shots.

It also got to the foul line on four different possessions and found ways to get those open 3-pointers.

Then the Tribe recovered to tie it at 58 on Tim Rusthoven's open layup with 14.8 seconds to go.

"I've been over here for 10 years now and I've seen a lot of teams
crumble in that situation and our guys didn't crumble today," Shaver said. "That's
really important to me and really important for them right now. Maybe a
month ago we wouldn't have made the stand we did. We didn't get a lot of
breaks down the stretch, we didn't make a lot of free throws, we didn't
get a lot of whistles, but we stood our ground and tied the game down
the stretch."

5. Mason is a step closer to avoiding Northeastern until the CAA title game.

The Patriots moved into third place in the CAA at 10-6, behind Delaware (10-5) and ahead of James Madison (10-7).

Mason, which swept James Madison, will be assured of no worse than the No. 3 seed if it beats Towson and Delaware knocks off both UNC Wilmington and Hofstra. That would ensure the Patriots could do no worse than a two-way tie for third with James Madison.

The No. 2 seed is still possible if Mason wins out (including Saturday's trip to Delaware) and Delaware loses to either (or both) UNC Wilmington or Hofstra. The Blue Hens beat conference leader Northeastern, which would serve as a tiebreaker in case they and Mason end up splitting the season series and tying for second.

Shaquille Cleare sat on the bench through nearly all of Maryland's 69-58 loss at Boston College on Tuesday. Matchup issues --- namely the Eagles' lack of size --- kept the freshman off the floor for much of the night.

Just a day earlier, coach Mark Turgeon said Cleare was the Terrapins' most coachable player. And, considering Maryland's penchant for turnovers and individual up-and-down play, that makes Cleare a bit of an anomaly.

It's a striking contrast, a coachable player whose minutes regularly fluctuate for a team with little consistency of its own.

"I think he's frustrated and I don't blame him because he practices hard," Turgeon said. "I was in a meeting with one of my assistants and him [Thursday] and another guy was with him Wednesday just trying to keep him focused."

Cleare is averaging 4.2 points and 3.1 rebounds in 13.2 minutes for the season. Those numbers dip to 2.8 points and 2.8 rebounds in 11.6 minutes in conference play.

Some of the center's issues are foul trouble. And some of it is Turgeon's decision to keep him solely at the five, a presumably short-term limit on his versatility since Alex Len takes most of the minutes at that spot.

Yet by all accounts, Cleare remains a dogged practice player in his first year at Maryland.

"I feel like Shaq is that player, that kid who regardless if you curse
him out or tell him he's the greatest player on earth, his facial
expression and body language is never going to change," forward Dez Wells said. "That's something
with him that's never going to change, his willingness to get better. By
far he's done the most on this team as far as changing his body. Shaq's
upside is really, really high. Once he starts playing on a more
consistent basis, I feel like the sky's the limit for him."

At 6-foot-9 and 265 pounds, there's little doubt Cleare has the frame to be an effective, even high-level, college player in time.

The question is when that time's coming as the Terps (18-8, 6-7 ACC) welcome Clemson to Comcast Center on Saturday. The Tigers feature a big, athletic front line of Devin Booker, Milton Jennings and K.J. McDaniels.

"It's a good matchup for Shaq," Turgeon said. "Hopefully, he can play well and we can keep him in there. The thing about Shaq is that it's so hard as a freshman. He's improved so much overall. Now, is he consistently improved in games? No. But he gives us good minutes. His time's coming. I don't know when, but his time is coming. He'll be much more prepared for it because he's worked so hard and gotten so much. He just hasn't gotten the playing time to become a better game player."

02/20/2013

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. --- It would be only too easy to rummage around the Big Bag of Sportswriters' Cliches to explain Maryland's stumble Tuesday night at Boston College, a nifty bow to wrap around a 69-58 loss just three days after the Terrapins' most riveting performance.

It will be called a letdown performance, a trap game or whatever trite description folks might care to summon.

Here's what it really is: A reflection of what Maryland truly is in a season defined by its chronic inconsistency.

How does Maryland invigorate its NCAA tournament hopes one night and then wander aimlessly in the second half against a sub-.500 Boston College bunch?

The Terps were not a team in stupor because of their inability to handle prosperity. They were in a stupor because they are erratic, an unpredictable collection of players, an identity showing no signs of abating.

"No one wants to be that way but I don’t know
what it’s a product of or what makes us that way," guard Logan Aronhalt said. "Coach definitely doesn’t or
he would have changed it already. I guess we’re still trying to find ourselves,
which at this late in the season is not where you want to be as a team."

After 26 games of a 30-some game season, enough of a track record exists to determine just who these Terps are.

In truth, Maryland (18-8, 6-7 ACC) is a group dead-set against predictability. It infuriates fans. It sends scribes scrambling for explanations that don't really fit.

And it confounds coaches. Of that there is little doubt.

"I
don’t know if I’ve ever coached a team that’s this young, that I have to rely
on [youth] so much," coach Mark Turgeon said. "I know their freshman [Olivier Hanlan] played really well tonight. This is new territory. I’ve been a head coach
for 19 years, including my JV team and been coaching 26 years and this is new
territory for me."

Turgeon isn't entirely out of answers this year, but there are some nights when there simply aren't solutions that can work. Surely, as Turgeon sat down in the final two minutes as the Eagles (12-14, 4-9) ruthlessly finished off Maryland at the foul line, he couldn't quite grasp how the night unraveled as it had.

Maryland led 33-26 at the break, finishing the first half on an emphatic Dez Wells block. And things soon unraveled, the Terps quickly giving away its advantage.

"The start of the second half James Padgett has a 3-point
play opportunity, goes up weak and then shoots an air ball six feet short, and
that’s your senior," Turgeon said. "I had no idea we’d play like that. It’s really
disappointing.

But surprising? Not particularly. Since the start of conference play, Maryland's longest winning streak is two games. Its longest losing streak is two games.

There's nothing to suggest the Terps have an utter collapse in them. Chances are, they'll impress Saturday against Clemson.

There also isn't a thing to make anyone believe Maryland has five straight wins in it to close out the regular season. There surely wasn't any evidence it was possible in the closing stages Tuesday.

"There’s no explanation," sophomore guard Nick Faust said. "We just have to grow up if we want
to change. Guys have to be more consistent and be more committed to the team."

There was all sorts of talk of commitment in the aftermath of Saturday's victory, how the Terps rededicated themselves in the way of an ugly home loss to Virginia.

It will no doubt return in the coming days, as Maryland seeks some measure of predictability beyond its utter unpredictability.

"My
team is a challenge every day to figure out what I’m going to get," Turgeon said. "I thought
we, as coaches, handled it about as well as we could handle it. I thought we
had us prepared. Obviously, we were up nine in the first half and playing well.
I don’t think it had anything to do with the game Saturday."

Indeed it didn't, no matter how tempting it was for so many on hand at Conte Forum to ascribe Maryland's latest bottoming-out to getting engulfed in the glee of a victory a few days earlier.

No, this was much more simple, much more mundane. This is who Maryland is this season, great potential and substantial limitations, with no indication it will change in the season's final month.

"I’ve
heard from a lot of good coaches and they told me freshmen just want to get on
the floor, sophomores just want to score points," said Aronhalt, whose 26 points was the most by a Terp this season. "I think that’s what we’re
dealing with out there sometimes. I hope guys can realize winning is so much
more important and so much more fun."

For now and quite possibly for good this season, Maryland's erratic nature will make it difficult for the Terps to put Aronhalt's wisdom to use.

02/18/2013

Howard returned to the team Sunday after missing all of last week and Saturday's victory over Duke for still undisclosed reasons.

"I just called him and talked to his dad and said I’m going
to bring you back," Turgeon said. "While I was suspending him, I was going through all the actions with him. He’s done everything
I’ve asked since then and he came back last night."

Howard is expected to be with Maryland (18-7, 6-6 ACC) when it visits Boston College (11-14, 3-9) on Tuesday. Howard is averaging 3.3 points and 2.6 rebounds in 23 games for the Terrapins.

"I talked to the team about
his mistakes," Turgeon said. "Hopefully, Pe’Shon learned from them and hopefully he learned from
his mistakes. He paid his punishment. He got punished for what he did. He’ll be
back. We need a confident, playing well Pe’Shon for us moving forward."

Maryland guard Seth Allen was named the ACC's rookie of the week for his performance in Saturday's 83-81 defeat of Duke.

Allen had 16 points --- all in the second half --- as well as two rebounds and two steals in the Terrapins' victory. He made two free throws with 2.8 seconds remaining to providing the winning margin for Maryland.

The freshman also had one assist and eight turnovers while playing 29 minutes, one off his career-high.